Holy Cow...And Pig!

I met with Dr. Vakili yesterday, mainly to touch base on my thesis research. He thinks I'm on the right track, and approves of my systematic approach. I didn't get any candy though. Not a complete bust, I guess. Later, I swung by my local library (100 yards away) for some image processing references (found 2) and any fiber mechanics (no dice) books. And I checked them out, instead of using the honor system. Go me.

Lasagna and curly fries in the cafeteria: $2.35
Knowing I'll never get a better deal, ever: Priceless

Around 2:00, I headed over to my old stomping grounds to help Jeff and his parents do some loading for his move. After we loaded up the U-Haul that they had stolen as well as (senior) Mr. King's truck, we figured "what the heck" and went ahead and drove on down to Huntsville. We wound up getting back to Tullahoma around 8:00 (I had lunch at 11:00), and Jeff and I ran to Wendy's to eat dinner and bring home some food for his folks. Jeff inhaled his baconator. Literally. I had to take 4 bites. Holy cow...and pig!

I returned this morning for another round of loading, driving, and unloading. Jeff only got crushed by the couch once. Jeff, his dad, and I did some preliminary organization around his new place, which I think made life easier for them later. I have to say that he's got a pretty sweet pad - about 2 square feet more than the townhouse in Tullahoma, and its a single story. That makes for a much better use of space. And he got 2 full baths. Nice upgrade.

We stopped for lunch at Firehouse Subs in Madison (next to Huntsville, where Jeff's new place is). I got the New York steamer (corned beef, pastrami, provolone, Italian dressing, and deli mustard), Jeff's dad ordered the same, and Jeff ordered the Italian Meatball sub. When they brought out our sandwiches, they tried to give Jeff the "Italian," which is an entirely different sandwich. Jeff tells them he ordered the "Italian Meatball sub" and they proceeded to argue. Even if you're totally, absolutely, without-a-doubt right, don't argue with the customer. Now Jeff will never return until his dad comes back to visit.

I got back to Tullahoma by mid-afternoon, and mostly just existed in limbo until dinner time. I grabbed some Subway (really wasn't feeling cooking). I know, two sandwiches in one day is bad. However, its better than a sandwich and an entire pizza. That's always a good rationalization.

Tonight, the Sci-Fi Channel aired an original movie Highlander: The Source. It was pretty good; it used the TV characters, which I liked; however, Queen didn't contribute to the soundtrack, which I was saddened by. Someone did cover Princes of the Universe, but it just wasn't the same. On the whole, it was better than nothing (no Law & Order marathon).

Who knows what tomorrow might bring?

Old Sparky

Apparently, Tennessee still uses the electric chair as a method of execution. Did not know that.

Yesterday's seminar was as awesome as I'd hoped. As it turns out, this guy designed the engines on the SR-71 Blackbird. They gave him an original design that provided no thrust, and melted the afterburners. He tweaked it with some jiggers (that's a slang term for the more proper "thingamabobs") somewhere, and wound up with a pretty sweet engine that pissed off the Russians for decades. And he met Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, and Juan Trip. Totally, totally cool.

I got a call yesterday from the FAA (one person, not everybody). The woman told me to apply for a specific position that's in Georgia (not too far from Atlanta). I filled out the online application, so we'll see where that goes. I wonder if they'd fly me over? If anyone could, it'd be them.

Today was pretty low-key. A little spin-lab work, class, and lunch were followed by a trip to Huntsville & Madison, Alabama. Jeff had some errands, and needed an extra set of hands moving a couple of things before the big move on Saturday. That should be fun. Dinner at Beauregard's was excellent, as always.

Consult your magic 8-ball about an update tomorrow.

Redneck Escort Service

I'm not making this up.

As I was making the drive back to Tullahoma last night, I saw a truck with this company name and logo written on the passenger door. I saw it as I was getting ready to merge onto I-440 outside of Nashville. When I saw it, I almost drove off the road. You're probably asking yourself, "What on earth?" Well, before you start calling the Nashville-Davidson County Better Business Bureau I should let you know that they "escort" wide loads on the interstate. I have to admit, I was thrown by it. Also, don't try googling it. That won't end well, I promise.

I should also take time to mention that I spent 4 hours at Red Lobster on Saturday. Two of those hours were spent standing at the bar trying to dry off with those crappy little beverage napkins. Jennifer's friend and classmate Bianca wanted to go there for her birthday (she shares a birthday with Jennifer). OK, sounds good. We get there at 5:00 only to find out that the current wait is an hour and forty-five minutes. Holy. Crap. The current theory is that there was a mass exodus from Mid-Town in order to avoid the Soul Bowl. I can't blame them - Jennifer and I essentially did the same thing. After we finally get seated almost two hours later, Bianca orders a 6-oz steak. STEAK. At Red Lobster. Urge to kill...rising...rising...

The garlic cheddar biscuits are really quite good though. If not for those, there might be a missing law student or two.

Today was back to the normal grind at UTSI. Characterizing carbon fibers, auditing Dr. Yue's Fiber Science class, and working towards my thesis (I'm working up a good title, like "Looming Thermo Project of Doom." Suggestions are welcome). I heated up some Campbell's Chicken Tortilla soup for dinner. Not great, but low calorie.

Finally, we're having our first seminar of the semester on Wednesday. Here's the email:

---

Never Told Tales of Blackbirds, U2s and Roadrunners,
the Golden Age of Aerospace

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
12:30 pm – Room H-111

Dr. Bob Abernethy
Manager of Reliability and Safety (retired)
Pratt & Whitney Aircraft, Inc.

Dr. Abernethy is the inventor of the dual cycle engines that power the Blackbirds. He will tell us stories about engineering in the fifties and sixties including the development of the aircraft engines that powered the reconnaissance aircraft of the cold war. The aircraft will include the U2, the YF12, A12, CL400 and the SR-71. The Lockheed Blackbird, SR-71, still holds all seventeen world speed and altitude records even though it was designed forty eight years ago.

---

They'd have to TRY to keep me away from that.

The Chicken of Depression

Obscure Far Side reference. Trust me, its funny.

Been a few days, hasn't it? I'm not apologizing, simply observing. I had a busy weekend back in Memphis, but it was very enjoyable. On Friday, several of us met at Putting Edge in Peabody Place for Ashley Miller's not-Birthday party. She won it a year ago, and needed to redeem it. Jennifer & I got a free round of Putt-Putt and some free pizza out of the deal, which was even better for me because I got Jennifer's free pizza (sans crust). Our foursome (BJ & Marly + Jennifer & me) all shot a hole-in-one at some point. Huzzah.

Saturday was equally busy - the evening was split between a free show at Comedy TN with BJ & Marly and Jennifer's friends Paula and John Paul, then Sheena's going away bowling party. Jennifer and I had to get there a little late because of the comedy club show, but the party was fizzling until we got there. Jeff joined me and Jennifer in a round of bowling before we all headed out. Sheena, your welcome for the help at the party, and good riddance. Or bon voyage. Yeah, bon voyage.

On Sunday, I took Jennifer to see The Lion King musical for her birthday. We didn't exactly have floor seats, but it was still very enjoyable. My only beef was with the Orpheum, not the show: that place was designed to seat small midgets. Not average midgets, but the ones on the smaller end of the bell curve. Why, why, why can't I have leg room? Oh well - hakuna matata, I guess.

I love Huey's, by the way.

Jeff and I have been anxiously awaiting S. M. Stirling's new book to come out for about a year, and The Sunrise Lands hit the stores on Jennifer's birthday (Sept 4th, for those unaware). The bookstore (in the loosest sense of the word) had exactly two copies, and we scooped them up in a hurry. They also tried to sell Jeff a Harry Potter book, for some strange reason. It might have been his wizard hat that he likes to wear.

And tomorrow, I return to Memphis for the weekend again. Good times.

Fur-Coated Evil

I read an enthralling little article in Uncle John's GREAT BIG Bathroom Reader today (I'll spare you the circumstances that lead to my reading the book) and it just seemed to leap of the page. The article was about "ferret-legging," a sport so ridiculously idiotic that it could only have originated in Scotland (the nation that also gave us golf). Basically, you tie the bottom of your pants to your ankles, insert two ferrets, and tie your waist tight with some rope. You are allowed to smack the ferrets (described as shark-of-the-land, piranha-with-feet, and fur-coated evil). The man who lasts the longest is the winner. Did I mention that there's no underwear allowed? Not that it would survive the encounter.

Today we tested some stabilized fibers, which are fibers that have been spun and dried, but not heat treated. We got some interesting data. Too bad I can't tell you about it. Also did some thesis work.

Ruby Tuesday makes a pretty good hamburger. Not nearly as good as Huey's. I've also been told to try a Red Robin burger. I know only of their seasoning, which is actually pretty good. The commercials look pretty good too. So we'll see.

There's still a rant coming. I'm cooking something up...you just wait.

I Like To Dream, Right Between The Sound Machine

Ah, Monday. I spent a little while in the spin lab before class today, but I didn't wait until the last minute before class, if you catch my drift. Dr. Yue's class was about like last week's - informative. That's it. Not really a class-like feeling to it at all. Dr. Yue just sits there (literally) and gives presentations. Which is not helping me decide if I want to take the class for a grade or audit. If I audit, no work but no credit. What I'd really like to know is what the tests are going to be like. Unfortunately, no one can give me the straight dope on that. Such is life.

When I finally get around to blogging again, its at time when there's really not too much to report. The irony of the situation isn't lost on me. To make up for the lack of content, I might start opining on various issues. I promise, however, to not fill space with complete drivel. Anyway, look for more editorials to go with the news.

Laundry Day Is A Very Dangerous Day

Not too bad, for a Sunday. There's never anything on TV on Sundays before 6:00 pm. Top Chef reruns aren't terrible. I did manage to get the dishes taken care of; it was down to them or me, and I came out on top. That, and I got some pictures hung on the walls. Also did some laundry, which needed doing. Caught a few episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. That show is definitely underrated. Steaks on the grill at Jeff's while I laundered - excellent.

On the whole, that's a pretty lame day. I'm going to pretend I did something more interesting, like going to Disneyland. I suggest you do the same.

That Sure Is A Big Pile O' Persians!

Not a whole lot went on Friday. UTSI had its annual kick-off picnic that was wisely held indoors this year. Other than having way too many people speaking before the serving lines were allowed to form, it went well. The barbecue was NOT from Piggy's Place; a smart move. It was from the other place in town, whose name escapes me. Its not Central BBQ, so its pretty irrelevant anyway.

A lightning storm parked above Tullahoma last night. It was both neat and scary. But more scary than neat.

Frank Miller's 300 is just as awesome as I'd hoped. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, however. It's got the Frank Miller feel, which not everyone is going to like. As Jeff points out, if you didn't like Sin City, you won't like 300. I will also go out on a limb and agree with Jeff that 300 is the better of the two movies. It was also refreshing to see ancient Greeks portrayed as having accents other than British. This time around, they were Scottish. Not very different, but different nonetheless.

That's pretty much the day, except for some eating here and there, going to the store, and doing a little bit of work. I better do the dishes soon, before they attack.

Sonderkommando ELBE!

Dogfights on the History Channel is an awesome show. First, I saw how Raymond Brooks whooped up on 8 German Fokkers during WWI. Then I find out that the Luftwaffe actually organized the Sonderkommando ELBE, a group whose mission was to ram their planes into US bombers. Crazy. And stupid. Google it. I'm sure Wikipedia has a well-written, if historically creative, article about it.

I renewed my tags today at the Coffee County Clerk's office. Their service is amazing, and it only took 5 minutes. My only complaints are this: (1) They won't accept an "out of town" check. Not an "out of state" check, "out of town." Geez. (2) Those cold-hearted jerks raised the fee by a good 4%. It took $24 to renew my tags. I know that's not a lot, but its the principle of the thing.

My Fiber Science class met today. It was about what I was expecting, I suppose. Dr. Yue has never taught a class before - ever. I'm still up in the air about getting a grade versus auditing. I still have to storm Vakili's office in a huff about my Experimental Methods grade, which would make a much bigger difference than simply taking another class.

Which puts me in an untenable position anyway. I can't get too huffy, because he's my thesis advisor and my boss. I'm also wanting to make him write a letter of recommendation so I can weasel into Tau Beta Pi. As a result, I'm probably just going to make few pathetic whimpers and move on. As Jeff observed, Vakili probably has Joe Londino on speed dial. If you got that reference, good for you.

That's all for tonight. By the way, what's the term for four-in-a-row? A hat trick is three-in-a-row. There's got to be an official word for this.

Mostly Harmless

Not bad for a Wednesday, I suppose. I was mostly babysitting the Diastron (the carbon fiber characterization machine). We got new suction cups for the sucking thingy, which has greatly improved the performance. Also, no wasps, which is much better.

In other news, it seems that I've gotten railroaded into taking a class this semester, MSE 552 - Fiber Science. Its being taught by Dr. Yue, one of Dr. Vakili's cronies. Dr. Vakili "strongly suggested" that I take this course; personally I could go either way. The surreal thing about this is how Dr. Vakili put this to me. I ran into him in the hallway after lunch and he said, "You haven't signed up for Dr. Yue's class yet." His tone was as if this had been previously discussed. He told me that Heather was going to be taking it (when I spoke with her later, this was the first she'd heard of it too). Either Dr. Vakili is losing it, or I have an evil twin doing evil things up at school. Anyway, I can always switch gears and audit the class if I don't feel like doing the work. Such is life.

More interesting developments with the my Monster resume. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

I passed out at 7:00 tonight for a solid half hour. Out of no where. I guess I'm getting old. Or it could have been the benedryl. I rarely do that during Law & Order though.

I'm working on a good rant, but I'm not sure what to rant about. I'll take suggestions, weigh them carefully, and then write about whatever I want to write about.

WASPS! THEY'RE EATING MY FLESH!

So I'm sitting in the spin lab, minding my own business, and I feel something (I don't know what) touch my head. So, being a reasonable person, I try to brush it off with my hand. Turns out that the "thing" was a Big. F-ing. Wasp. Stung me right on the finger. So, after freaking out for a minute due to the pain and worrying about anaphylactic shock, I killed him. Killed him dead. Size of a barn swallow. Seriously.

Part of a lamp also wound up killed, killed dead too. I don't know anything about that though.

The day was pretty anticlimactic from there. Load fibers, test fibers, load fibers, test fibers, find out that Dr. Vakili wanted me to test those fibers, not these fibers. Communication is a weak point up here.

My resume is getting some notice on Monster.com, which is reassuring. More on that as events develop. Right now, its too early to call.

So what have I been up to since April? Excellent question.

Ferrett Chainsaw Massacre

Ferretts attack more people annually than grizzley bears. According to the folks who make Diet Mt. Dew. I saw the commercial the other day during The 4400 and almost choked on my dinner.

Its been a very long time. I started off being busy, got lazy, went back to being busy again, got lazy again, and finally returned to busy. I'm still very, very busy, but I hit a point tonight in which I was too tired & fed up with work to keep producing, yet still lucid enough to articulate - that's how blogs are born.

Anyway, hopefully I'm back in the blogging game for good for now. I'd write a longer update, but this is mostly just an announcement that I'm back. A bit more subtle than a police cruiser through the front door, but it'll do.

Check back tomorrow.

Taste The Meat, Not The Heat

Well, as weekends go, I was actually pretty productive. Friday (0r Saturday, Pt I) and Saturday were completely devoted to making revisions to my Design Summary for Missiles class. Now its done, after having been sent out to my colleagues for review. Apparently, I like commas, or so it seems, really. Really. But anyway, the sucker is 39 pages, with plenty of graphs and charts and as little content as possible. I have to say, its good work. Anyone who wants to read it can.

Today I got moving on some Mechanical Design homework. There sure is a lot of it, I guess that happens when you ignore it for 3 weeks and let it pile up. I'm about halfway through the chapter on springs, which has been pretty neat and simpler than I thought it would be. The problem is that Dr. Dekken gave us the solutions to all the homework. That's actually less helpful than you might think. I'm trying to learn (crazy, I know) and its hard to do that when I know that the problem has already been worked for me.

I've got a study group meeting tomorrow at 7:00 pm, which is just dandy. It'll help bouncing some ideas around for the test on Wednesday, but it means that I'll have to miss Heroes. I guess I'll have to tape it. Such is life.

Anyway, its getting late and I'm out of stuff to say.

Back In The Saddle

Well, its been exactly a month since the last post, and a lot has been going on. Also, that's the official reason for the moratorium on blogging recently. It also has a lot to do (unofficially) with me being lazy. But we all knew that.

I'm going to skip a long recap about the last month, but I will type some highlights. Saw TMNT, which was really good. Not great, but good. I got a free Central BBQ t-shirt in celebration of their 5th anniversary. Easter was good, but long (+450 miles in one day). CBU performed very well at the Moonbuggy Race in Huntsville, even though they had no seniors. I saw Hank Pitts while I was down there. He's good, by the way. Also, I think I went to class quite a bit.

My time lately has been dominated by my Tactical Missile Design project (codename: Hound Dog). Its been really fun, but inspired a lot of headaches. The propellant grains were giving me a lot of trouble, and converging to a solution slowed everything else down. I was originally going to try and slide by without fins, but it turned out that I need them. Anyway, what you see to the right is the finished product (pretty much) as I have it drawn in Pro/Engineer. The yellow nose is actually the front half of the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), a bunker-busting "terrorist killer" that can currently be dropped off of an F-15 or an F-22. My missile can lob it 500 miles (150 miles past the design point) in some directions. Anyway, my final presentation was Monday, and went fairly well. Dr. Flandro had some points (good ones) that I need to explore and possibly revise, but nothing that will ruin my design. There's only one thing that really bugs me, which is my second stage propellant. I'm using a unique geometry that industry experts might call "ridiculous" (or "unwise" if they want to be nice about it). Bottom line is that I got backed into a corner with a constant thrust profile, and there isn't much I can do about it now. The plan now is to spend Thursday night through Saturday evening getting it done so I can worry about my other two classes next week.

Tomorrow's my last day of class for the semester, which is pretty unbelievable. At least I don't have Missile Design tomorrow. That'll give me time to look over my Viscous sample tests once more before class. Boundary-layer flow is a little weird. And its getting late, so I'm going to wrap this up now.

It's good to be back.

"There Must Be Some Way Out Of Here,"

said the Joker to the Thief. "There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief."

That's how awesome the Battlestar Galactica Season 3 finale was. Jimmy Hendrix by way of Bob Dylan. Unfortunately, the show won't be back until 2008. I love and hate the producers of that show. I know I'll forgive them, eventually. But for now I'm angry and sad and still pumped from the awesomeness.

In other news, I got both of my midterms back on Thursday, and things were just about as I expected. I got a 92 on the Mechanical Design test (I'm fairly sure that was the highest grade, but we're kinda past those announcements at this point in school). I got a 20.5 / 30 on my Viscous midterm. That's a couple of points better than my midterm last semester, and near the top of class performance this time. I need to do at least as well on the final to get an A, which shouldn't be a problem.

I may have an opportunity to go to Washington, D.C. sometime soon. Dr. Vakili asked for anyone interested in both the NASA and politics, and that's me to the letter. There's some kind of annual rally / awareness conference every year, and they like to sponsor a few students. It would involve meeting some congressmen and NASA bigwigs, so that would be cool. More on that as details emerge.

As for the weekend, it went pretty well. Jeff and I grilled some steaks last night, and watched Casino Royale (the new one). We're going to watch the old one soon (we've got it, just no time). I thought the movie was pretty good, I look forward to the next one.

Yesterday I got all my Viscous homework taken care of for the week, so I could focus on my missile more right now. Today I spent the day trying to get my propellant geometry designed (its pretty important). I can get a solution for my 1st stage, but the 2nd stage is proving to be (in polite terms) awful. To make matters worse, our professors have conflicting views on the neccessity of designing said propellant geometry. Dr. Flandro thinks is not worth the time and effort (yay!), but Paul thinks we should do it (boo!). Jeff and I are on the verge of attempting a coup de class. More on that as details emerge.

Now to bed. To bed, I said.

Hardly Working

Its been a while, so I'll just hit the high points.

Jennifer came up to visit the week before Spring Break. We drove down to Chattanooga (nice town) and had a blast at the Tennessee Aquarium. I got to pet a sturgeon, a shark (a little one), and a sting ray (he was stingerless). While we were there, we strolled around the downtown area, found an old merry-go-round and rode it for $1. I had a couple of mid-terms to prepare for; I think I knocked my Mechanical Design test out of the park, and I think I may have gotten picked off at 1st on my Viscous test. Oh well, I get points for the baseball analogies.

The week at home was pretty nice - mostly uneventful, somewhat productive, and pretty relaxing. On Monday Jeff and I met up at CBU to work on some missiles stuff. We put in most of a day, and Dr. Shiue bought us lunch (he IS the Coolest Man on the Planet, afterall). The rest of the week, I mostly relaxed, read a little, and spent time with Jennifer. I did finally get to watch Flyboys (its about the Lafayette Escadrille - look it up). It wasn't quite as good as I had hoped, but still a solid B+. If you liked The Great Raid, you'll enjoy Flyboys. Lunch on Thursday with the family was really nice, and not just because of the Central BBQ. But it was a factor. Mostly though, it was nice to get to visit. Also, Wild Hogs was pretty funny.

Getting back in to the swing of things today was not too fun. I barely got up on the second alarm, and stumbled into Mechanical Design with a minute to spare. Dr. Dekken forgot the tests, so no good news there. Gloyer didn't show up for missiles (family emergency), so that was a nice repreive. And finally, our remote student hasn't taken the Viscous midterm yet, so no bad news there. At least that balanced out.

Now I'm sitting here, and about to give up and call it a night.

And...I'm done.

Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes!

%#@&! Blogger ate my post. This would have been longer, I swear.

Thursday was a long day. It seemed to drag on and on and on. Dr. Dekken shed some light on the homework problems I've been attempting, which was good. In Missiles, Dr. Flandro showed us a one-sixth scale model of the Sergeant rocket motor (it had a role in the Explorer I launch) and showes us his book that's signed by Werner Von Braun. Later, we had a roundtable discussion about our designs, and the Superfriends led the way. Gloyer feels like Jeff's design is a little too similar to my design, but no one cares what he thinks. In Viscous Flow, we finally started talking about Poisseuille (pronounced "pah-swee") Flow, which is essentially fluid flowing in a pipe. This is good because its something realistic, which always helps me learn good.

I was going to work out after class, but I felt exhausted. So I took a two-hour nap instead. After some much needed rest and dinner, I banged out 5 of the 6 homework problems that I needed doing for Vakili. After that, I was out like a light again and slept for 8 hours. Yes, I was THAT tired.

Today I got up and went to the lab to do a little bit of work, just one tray. While I was there, they test fired a rocket about 300 feet away from where I was sitting. This marked the second time in a week that a super cool dangerous machine has been test fired without me being notified. I realize now that I failed to mention in my earlier post that they test fired a turbojet engine in the next building over from me on Wednesday - I thought a plane was about to crash very near by until ran outside and saw the grass LAYING DOWN next to the building. Strange sensation. While I was hard at work (mostly writing up homework and babysitting the machine) Dr. Vakili came by to show some people around. I didn't get a good look at them when the headed into the Spin Lab, but Dr. Vakili gave me a weird look. On their way back out, he introduced Heather & I to them. One gentleman was a co-founder of UTSI, the other was a long-time administrator of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. They were a little awe-inspiring. And then Dr. Vakili asked me what I was doing there, it being a Friday and all. Go figure.

I did make it to the gym today, and boy was it a work out. I ran 3.1 miles ( 5 km ) in about 31 minutes, did 15 minutes on the elliptical machine, and did a 10 minute cool-down walk. All in all, I burned about 1,000 calories. Hoo-ah.

Jeff and I did some much needed spring cleaning this afternoon. When there's dust settled on the cleaning supplies, you've got a problem. I'd say the apartment hasn't been this clean since I moved in. Which is sad, albeit true.

During dinner, Jeff and I watched Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! This movie was awfully hilarious, emphasis on both the awfully and the hilarious. Its kind of weird, so don't expect much high-minded humor or plot development. Actually, its kinda dumb. But in a good way. After dinner, I did a little bit more Viscous work, and did some missile brainstorming with Jeff. Once we were done there, we wrapped up the evening by watching Idiocracy, a very smart little satire about the dumbing-down of society. Its from Mike Judge, the creative mind behind Office Space and King of the Hill. On the whole, it was pretty good if a little scary. The premise, like all movies, was a stretch but it was based on some real trends. See Jeff's blog for more detailed rambling. My thoughts: read a book, paint a picture, and turn the tv off.

Jennifer is coming up to visit tomorrow. I can't wait.

Finally, Blogger is dumb because it ate my post. While I was typing this, I tried to check my email at another gmail address, in another browser. Appparently, Blogger doesn't like this.

%#@&!

You Picked A Fine Time To Leave Me, Lucille

Well, Tuesday wasn't so bad, I guess. There weren't any feet to use for the characterization machine, so I went up to school and worked on some of my missile project and some Viscous homework. Both were off-and-on, with more progress made on the missile project than Viscous, until Heather & I broke down and asked Dr. Vakili how to do one of the problems.

At about 2:30, Jeff and I called it quits for a bit and drove up to Murfreesboro for a round of disc golf. I think the last time Jeff played was around Thanksgiving and I had played once with Jennifer over Christmas Break. It wasn't my best round, and I lost my Stingray, but I had fun. And more importantly, it was Wing Night at Buffalo Wild Wings. I love that spicy garlic sauce.

After we got back, I played phone tag with Cingular to figure out where the phone I ordered (almost 2 weeks ago!) was. It turns out that they didn't feel like sending it to me. So, I got them straightened out, eventually. Hopefully I'll have my new Samsung X-507 by Friday. Hopefully.

Today, I got up and spent the morning in the Characterization Lab. Dr. Fei wants us to reuse some feet to continue with our characterization. And he keeps trying to change our methods. From an academic point of view, I understand that we need to strive for excellence here, but I keep feeling like he's trying to back-seat-characterize. Makes me want to hit him.

Instead of eating a regular lunch today, I just had a granola bar & a snack pack. I did this to see if running on an emptier stomach is very helpful. And, at least for me, it is. I was a lot less uncomfortable today than usual. Its something I'm going to try and work on.

Finally, I realized last night that my TI-89 calculator was gone. I've referred to it for years as "Lucille." It turns out that Amy inadvertantly (so she claims) snagged it while we were working in the office yesterday. I'm just glad she's safe (Lucille).

El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Lee

Happy birthday, Johnny.

So I have apparently angered the homework gods. Dr. Dekken threw us another 20 problems today so that he could plow on into the chapter on shafts (I can dig it). It was almost made worthwile by two things: 1) He started talking about power transmission, but instead of "power" it sounds like a pirate saying "paaaargh!" 2) We found out when the mid-term was going to be, and the format (in class, open notes, 5 or 6 questions). That's not the worste situation I've dealt with, but Dr. Dekken is no Dr. Shiue.

In Missiles, Dr. Flandro started talking about combustion instability. This is a problem that he has been working on SINCE BEFORE MY DAD WAS BORN. Holy Schnikes! Anyway, its apparently a very big deal that almost every rocket that's ever been designed; for rockets that work its something that gets swept under the rug and for rockets that don't, well those are called "learning experiences," or "bombs." He also made a pipe sing and I got to handle some rocket propellant. It smelled funny.

What can I say about Viscous other than that it went? We're in a patch of stuff that's not terribly interesting, but important. Something about Navier-Stokes applications. And it related to crankshafts somehow.

During lunch, it was brought to my attention that my trajectory code was erroneous. It wound up being serendipidous, though, which is a good thing. On the one hand, it turns out that all the work I did on Friday was a waste, but on the other hand, I was able to get a much smaller missile out of the deal. I'm now at a 1500 lbm, 2 stage rocket with an effective range of about 400 miles. Not bad, not bad at all.

Tomorrow night is wing night at B-Dubs. I might just have to go.

Every Excess Becomes A Vice

That was what my fortune cookie read, after I ate a rather large meal at an all-you-can-eat buffett. How did they know?

Anyway, I spent the weekend in Memphis. I had a good time, and got some work done - a good mixture. I met Jennifer for lunch on Friday up at Memphis, but wisely decided to pass on sitting in for her Torts class. If it happens twice, shame on me. Anyway, afterwords I snuck into the Nolan Engineering Computer Lab to get some work done on my missile. After a couple of hours of playing with parameters, I happend upon a 2,000 lb, 2 stage rocket that seems to fit the bill. Now I have to start sizing some things to make sure I'm inside my mass budget (hopefully, I'll have over-compensated and can reduce my mass even further ( lower mass = lower cost) ). And yes, I used a double parenthesis. Later on, Jennifer and I met up with Angela Dunn & her friend Molly and drove down to Tunica (I navigated from the back-seat). It was Jennifer's friend Paula's birthday, and she had $20 players cards. Sweet deal. After the huge meal and some winings on the slots, Jennifer's meal was essentially paid for. Not too shabby.

Saturday started off cold and rainy. Then, Jennifer and I ran a 5k out at Shelby Farms. It was the 5th annual "Celebrate Everybody" run, with special emphasis on eating disorders. I did recognize the irony of me pigging out the night before the race. Anyway, the reason we were there at all was to support Jennifer's sorority (AST) and their philanthropy (its like a charity, but sounds better). How many ASTs showed up? One. And her name was Jennifer. Bad form, girls. Bad form. That being said, I actually ran the whole thing without stopping. I doubt I could have done it without Jennifer pacing me, but I did it. Go me. Also, decent schwag. Later on, we went up to the Law Library so Jennifer could research the position paper she's writing and so I could scare the law students with my math. I was non-dimensionalizing like a man possessed.

We wrapped the evening up by having dinner with my family at Ryan's and watching Gridiron Gang. The movie was alright; it was kinda like the Mighty Ducks if only the kids were gang members and drug dealers instead of loveable scamps. Oh, and football instead of hockey.

Today I spent a little time hanging around the house, hanging around CBU, and driving back to Tullahoma. I got some great gas mileage this trip - 31.2 mpg. I have almost a whole half of a tank left. I did a little bit of missile stuff, and watched Battlestar Galactica. Now its time to sleep.

Laissez Les Bons Temps Rouler

It's French, but its really Cajun. That makes it ok. Anyway, happy Mardi Gras.

Yesterday, we dodged homework in Mechanical Design but heard more talk of a possible test. In Missiles, Gloyer gave us mardi gras beads that he rescued from his flooded property down in Mississippi. I sure hope he washed them. He then proceeded to redefine our project again for the umpteenth time, which is starting to get really annoying. I wore my beads to Viscous, and had an interesting conversation with Rich the Canadian Spy (I mean "Guy"). He asked what was up with the beads, and I explained that tomorrow (today) was Mardi Gras. So I said to have a good "Fat Tuesday." Here's where it gets a little weird - he didn't know that "mardi gras" was French for "fat tuesday." He grew up and is a citizen of Canada, who's other official language is French. I would have thought that it would have come up. He even mentioned a cajun restaurant called Fat Tuesdays, which served fried alligator. And then Dr. Vakili volunteered that it tasted like chicken, and so do frog legs (which can be found at the UTSI dinning hall on occassion). Then he assigned homework - curses!

Today I went up to school to do some characterization...hopefully the last for a little while. As it turns out, we're out of feet (the plastic tabs that we fix the fibers on to put in the machine). So, no feet = no characterization = happy Lee. I'll spend tomorrow doing Missiles work instead. Good times.

Jeff and I celebrated Mardi Gras by fixing tacos for dinner. We don't know any French recipes, and we wanted tacos anyway, so it worked out.

I'm close to having a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for my missile program. That'll come in handy in short order.

Finally, UTSI chili is pretty tasty. It doesn't have corn in it at all.

Jeeperdoodles!

Well, its been a few days. Mostly I've been lazy, but I also felt like any one day didn't warrant a blog entry since Wednesday.

Thursday was a normal day of classes. We dodged homework in Mechanical Design (woohoo!) but Dr. Dekken did mention that we might possibly think about discussing a probable exam sometime in the not-too-distant forseeable future (no woohoo!). Gloyer rambled, but about missiles. And the man tried to correct me regarding carbon fiber manufacturing methods. I can sit through a class, but I will not be talked down to by someone with a mullet. Finally, Viscous Flow as a wonderful excercise in non-dimensionalizing equations. Everyone always talks how they're important and significant and the pinnacle of theory, but I'm not impressed. I spent the evening on some homework. Jeff and I fixed a dinner fit for royalty: garlic-herb marinated chicken (me), sour cream & chives mashed potates (boxed), and cornbread (Jeff). Tasty.

On Friday, I spent the morning in the lab characterizing fibers, trying to figure out what the heck Dr. Fei is doing, avoiding Dr. Fei, and trying not to swear too loudly at the characterization machine. I cut out around 2:00, hit the gym, and vegetated through most of the afternoon. Later, Jeff and watched Enemy at the Gates (pretty good, lots and lots of shooting), and Employee of the Month (a solid 7-out-of-10 comedy).

Saturday was actually kind of productive. I finished the most recent set of Viscous homework (I need to work on the stuff he assigned on Thursday, but I've got a while). Then, I got my trajectory code working. It turns out I was dividing by mass in two places, which was making everything crazy. But it got fixed. Later, Jeff and I watched the 80's classic Who Framed Roger Rabbit. It had been forever since I've seen it, and its a riot. The shorts included on the DVD were awesome too.

Today, I got up went to see my cousin Tracy play in a volleyball tournament at the Webb School in Bell Buckle, TN. If any of you thought that Tullahoma was a hick town in the middle of nowhere, I invite you to explore the cosmopolitan experience that is Bell Buckle. All I have to say is, "wow." Anyway, Tracy's team won the tournament. That made getting up more bearable.

After I got back, I added the proper mass profile to the trajectory program and started getting answers. Right now I have a single stage solution, with a missile that weighs less than 5000 lbs that reaches the target range and altitude. However, its moving at several THOUSAND miles per hour. In a word: undesireable. I need to start realistically acounting for drag (including my drag brakes). That's on the agenda for tomorrow.

Finally, jeeperdoodles.

Meat & Three

Yesterday was the Career Fair up in Nashville, and it was quite the learning experience. The companies I talked to, + sign indicates cool schwag:

FFA (Federal Aviation Administration): The job would involve designing control towers and whatnot, lots of travel over the region (from the Mississippi to the East Coast, from Kentucky to the Carribbean). Cool job, not so big on the travel.

National Instruments: The mostly make widgets in the techincal field, for various private and governmental organiztion (cool, I guess). They're mostly looking for people to join their Engineering Leadership Program (they mentioned phone sales and my eyes glazed over).

SSR (Smith, Seckman, and Reid Inc.): Engineering consulting firm based in Nashville, with locations in Memphis, Hernando, Knoxville, and other mostly southern cities. Sounds like an ok place with pretty good benefits (good). It's mostly HVAC (not bad, not at all). Very nice recruiters. +

TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority): Official Motto: Dam It! (I kid. But it should be). They have all sorts of power plant, HVAC, and design jobs that open on a rolling basis (good). Not much bad, just general job availaibility is unpredictable. +

FedEx Kinko's: Just Kinko's. Jerks.

Y-12 National Security Complex: Located in Oak Ridge, TN, they moniter weapons or something (good). Kinda shady. Not many job opportunities for mechanical engineers (bad).

Cummins, Inc.: They make and recondition diesel engines (good). Headquartered in Columbus, Indiana with a location in Memphis. When the recruiters heard Jeff and I say "engineer," they were on us like white on rice (very good). +

FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation): Weren't interested in engineers, but they were interested in math majors. Go figure.

M2E Consulting Engineers: Engineering consultants, mostly construction work with some forensic engineering (very good). Based in Miami and soon to be in Las Vegas (not so good). Seemed pretty laid back.

Jacobs ESTS: They do a large part of the contracting for NASA in Hunstville (good). As I understand it, they're doing a lot of work on the Ares project (really good) and are expanding in the next couple of years (really really good). +

CIA (Central Intelligence Agency): +

PEO (Program Executive Office Missiles & Space): If it involves a rocket engine in Hunstville, they know about it. And probably helped design it (good). Also hiring a lot of people in the near future. Apparently, there are still Apollo engineers still kicking. +

Nuclear Fuel Services: Honestly, I don't remember much other than their location in Oak Ridge. And probably some nuclear-related work. +

Baker Hughes: Oil drilling support company, from drilling to searching to refining. Based in Texas (suprise). Very nice recruiters, perceptive enough to realize I won't read anything they give me. The German engineering manager guy was a little too eager, though. He really put it out there. The whole experience gave me a "don't drink the kool-aid" vibe. ++

Jeff and I looked for Parker-Hannifin, but they were no-shows. They have an office in Memphis, and make automotive couplings. Garrett worked for them for a while during college.

After the fair, we went to lunch at the White Trash Cafe. The food was excellent, and cheap. I had the meat loaf, mashed 'taters, and fried apples - cornbread on the side. We're told that they have murder mystery theater nights on Fridays. Neat.

Today Jeff and I went up to school to meet with Amy and Scruffy to work on our programs for Missiles. We figured out how to get our programs to stop when we want, by using the bisection method. All it took was a minor felony on my part (I self-checked some books from the library). It's a victim-less crime. Anyway, the bisection method works for now, but may not be sufficient as we add more and more realism to our programs. We'll see.

I'm really beginning to loathe carbon fiber characterization. It took 3 hours to run 12 samples. It should have taken 1 hour, tops. Long story, and I won't go into it now.

Happy Valentine's day to everyone in a relationship. Happy Singles-Awareness Day to the rest of you.

Drag Bakes, Retro Rockets, Shuttlecocks, Oh My!

shut·tle·cock (shŭt'l-kŏk')

n. A small rounded piece of cork or rubber with a conical crown of feathers or plastic, used in badminton. Also called bird, birdie.

I'll get to it in a minute.

Classes were up and down today. Mechanical Design was interesting. Dr. Dekken worked some problems that he didn't assign, but was helpful anyway. He was especially helpful regarding a problem that invovled a displaced load, acting on a beam through an attached bracket. Its one of those things that's hard to visualize without a solution manual. Good times, though.

In Missiles, Paul Gloyer started covering mission and device architecture. This was probably his first lecture that went anywhere, and I was impressed overall. We talked about propellants, stabilizers, and eventally, decelerators. There's a few options: drag brakes (also known as "slow down flaps"), retro rockets, and drag ribbons / parachutes, and "shuttlecocks." Gloyer owns a patent or two on the topic, and it's rather ingenious. Essentially, the missile unfolds into a giant badmitton birdie in order to slow down to a reasonable speed with a reasonable temperature at our target location. The only danger is that the enemy could up the arms race another notch and develop a gigantic raquet. THEN we're in trouble.

After lunch and resume printing, we had Inviscid. Before class, Dr. Vakili said he needed to talk to me about work stuff after class. Call it a guilty conscience, but he had me nervous the whole time. He went over some homework, and got into some non-dimensionalization stuff (blegh, but its too important to ignore). It turns out that the work discussion was fairly benign (just more work), but it put me off the rest of the day.

After a haircut, some grocery shopping, and procuring a belt, I'm all set for the job fair tomorrow. I hope I knock 'em dead. Except those CIA guys. They're probably trained to get through this stuff anyway.

Chili Today, Gone Tamale

Executive Summary: Another good weekend spent in Memphis. And some chili.

Classes went fine on Thursday. Dr. Dekken didn't assign homework, The Flandro was awesome, and Dr. Vakili actually showed up. After class, I had to sit through the bi-weekly Carbon Fiber group meeting. Basically, certain people talked a bunch when they could have talked a little, and Dr. Vakili gave us the first rule of Carbon Fiber Club: Don't talk about Carbon Fiber Club. Also, the fibers that Heather and I have been working can be a little dangerous and we should be wearing masks when we handle them. Thanks for the heads up, Chief.

The drive to Memphis was uneventful. Even leaving an hour late, I dodged most of Nashville traffic (which can be awful). I made it to CBU, and did a little bit of Mechanical Design homework and watched some Smallville. Not their greatest episode, but not their worst either. Mostly, I kept Jennifer company while she was on duty in the RD suite.

On Friday, I met Jennifer for lunch at Memphis, and then went to her Torts class. For those of you not in "the know," a tort is defined as "a civil wrong." Anyway, I don't feel like typing the whole story, but click here for the account. It's the first story.

The rest of Friday afternoon was spent working on our respective homework. Good times. Later on, we went to Comedy TN to redeem the free tickets that we had won. Russell, Nate, Angela, Paula, and John Paul joined us. A bunch of other people were going to join us, like David Tran & Christina, Justin Khuel and Dawn Gullickson (yeah, she's got a last name!) - but they turned out to be losers.

Saturday was Homecoming at CBU. From noon to 2:00, there was a Chili cookoff. At said chili cookoff, I ate what most people might consider an obscene amount of chili (4 bowls). The "Chipotle Off the Old Block" was pretty good, as well as the TKE batch, but my favorite was the chili made by Felix Bishop, one of our chapter founders. That stuff was awesome. Apparently, there was a basketball game too.

We went to J. Alexander's for dinner which was nice (soup of the day: chili!). I got Jennifer some chocolates for Valentine's, and she got me a really neat Rubick's cube that has 6 pictures of us on the sides instead of colors.

Today was Blake's 16th birthday. Watch out, motorists of Memphis. He doesn't have wheels yet, but its only a matter of tme. Other than that, I hung around with Jennifer for a little bit before I headed back to Tullahoma.

In other news, I found out that Troop 261 (my scout troop) has been retired. From what I've been told, its hoped to be only temporary. Apparently, there's only 2 or 3 kids involved now, some are moving away, and none of the dads want to step up and be the Scoutmaster. Its sad. But, I'm told, the cub scout pack has about 40 kids involved. There'll be some boy scout age kids soon.



Looking back, that much chili might have been unwise.

Admiring The Monkey

Tomorrow is Jeff's birthday, so the Superfriends went to breakfast to celebrate. And where did we eat? Only the best place on the planet: The Cracker Barrel. I like pancakes. And country ham. Mmm. Country ham.

After breakfast, Jeff, Amy, and I sat down for a brainstorming session about improving our code. Basically, we've decided to abandon the Matlab defined Runge-Kutta function and are going to write our own version that's better, faster, stronger. I won't bore you with the details though. Not now, at least.

At 1:00, Heather and I met with Dr. Fei (the new research professor on the carbon fiber project) and showed him how we do all of our characterization. He's familiar with the whole process, and I don't think he concluded that we're total nitwits. He is worried about us breathing the molten wax fumes from the soldering gun. I don't mind them, but I do mind the pink elephants that steal my carbon fibers.

After a long-winded discussion with Dr. Fei, we had to hurry over to the seminar today: "Lessons Learned During 45 Years of Engineering and Management Career" by Dr. Frank W. Steinle, Jr. Topics included: handling the unfamiliar, smelling for fish, admiring the monkey, utilizing the Boyd theory, getting a decision, discovering territorial boundaries, forming alliances, and having fun in the midst of chaos. This was a different seminar than what we usually get; instead of a bunch of technical broohaha, we got all kinds of nuggets of wisdom from a guy who's been around the block a few times. He was pretty well-spoken, covered everything he meant to cover, and I still could not tell you what on earth "admiring the monkey," means. Honestly.

I went to gym after the seminar, and it's been all downhill from there.

Also, Jeff and I apparently have a following at Amy's mom's company. We know you're out there. Yes, you. At the computer. You know who you are.

It Stinks And I Don't Like It

Not a whole lot to report on today, I'm afraid.

I slept in, went up to school for lunch and some errands (print off my Matlab code, and pick up an admission ticket to a job fair up in Nashville next week). The first task is straightforward, even though I have to go into the wing secretary's office to get to the printer. She's a scary woman. She tried to melt Jeff with a glare once. The other task...not so simple. We have to pick up the admission tickets from the Director of Admissions (its a stretch, I know). Unfortunately, Callie is off somewhere doing something and won't be back until Friday. And she locked the tickets in her office, and no one around her neck of the woods felt like looking for a key. Oh well.

I made it to the gym again today. So far, I'm batting a thousand on that. Go me. And I feel silly for ever paying for Harvey's Gym. Oh well, lesson learned.

The rest of the day was spent plodding along with my Mechanical Design homework. Dr. Dekken cleared some things up on Monday, which was great. However, these problems are still long, complicated, and poorly written to boot. I think the author should be forced to go to Technical Writing class. Yes, its that bad.

Earlier this evening, I tried upgrading my blog template to the new version. Some things were an improvement, I guess. Primarily, they've GUI-fied the template process (GUI = Graphical User Interface). This is good for people who don't really know HTML or XML. However, at this point they haven't given the GUI enough range to satisfy me. Also, they changed how a few other things looked (brighter pastels = blegh). Overall, it stinks and I don't like it. So I switched back.

In the news: Crazy Astronaut Lady

Interesting point: Cmdr. Bill Oefelein, the hapless guy in the story, was the pilot of the most recent shuttle mission, and a UTSI grad. Interesting.

Finally, today celebrated the return of White Guys With Irrelevant Opinions. Jeff and I aren't going to be as active with it, but it's back and that's a good thing. We have two new scholars to chew the fat, but Jeff and I hope to chyme in from time to time.

That's Not Very Elegant, Paul

What a day, what a day.

Mechanical Systems was pretty informative. I hadn't made very much headway on the Ch 2 problems ( 1 part laziness, 9 parts gross incompetence). Today, Dr. Dekken starting covering a lot of the stuff I'll need to get through it. Also, everyone in the class agrees that the auther was on some mind-altering substance(s) when he sat down to revise the book for this edition. We have compressive forces causing expansion (can't happen), impossible problems (can't be done), and very few pictures (makes me sad).

After class, I stuck around and started going through some of the problems with Seth (he works on the base, and goes in at 10 am. Yuck). We helped eachother on a couple of early problems, and walked our way through the rest of the problems. We're planning on doing that after every class now. It's better than sitting around; idle hands are the devil's playground.

Just before Tactical Missile class started, Jeff, Amy, Scruffy, and I were discussing our various trajectory codes with Paul Gloyer (he ain't a doctor, and I don't respect him enough to award him with a "Mr."). One of the problems we have is that our missiles are supposed to release the payload at a certain altitude. As of right now, none of us have figured out how to make our programs do that. So Gloyer tosses out that we could just let our code run until we return to the ground, and chop off our data afterwards (pretty easy, from a do-nothing point of view). As he's saying that, Dr. Flandro walks in, overhears him, and says, "That's not very elegant, Paul." And I swear, the "Paul" part had a profane emphasis on it. Hilarious. Also, Jeff inadvertantly accused Dr. Flandro of having a mistake in his equations of motion for the problem, so we worked through it again. At the end, with the right answer, Flandro points out that its a good thing we reached the right answer because he's been using that code on various designs for +30 years. Ouch.

Dr. Vakili made it back for class today. He missed last week because his wife was having some kind of operaton, so I'll cut him some slack there. He was definitely back in full force today, blowing right through those evil Navier-Stokes Equations. Again, I must stress that you should avoid them if you can.

After class, I returned to the gym. It's been way too long, and it was time to take action. Maybe I'll go again tomorow too (if I can hobble out to the car in the morning - oy!).

Finally, Heroes is a great show. Watch it.

Dave Grandy: The Dog Whisperer

As most of the English-speaking world knew, today was Superbowl Sunday. Except for the 29 hours of pregame programming, it wasn't much different than a usual Sunday. I didn't watch any of it - I spent most of the day working on Mechanical Design homework. Its slow-going, mainly because of the subject matter. Dr. Dekken hasn't covered much of it yet, and when I went through it back at CBU, it was long and awful.

I did catch a little bit of programming on other channels. Mostly it was Spike TV's "Craziest/Wildest/Scariest/Goriest - Wrecks/Sports/Animals/Things - Gone Mad/Bad/Crazy/Wrong - Ever - Ever" marathon. Train wrecks are weird to watch - they're horrific, but you can't turn away. In that respect they're kind of like . . . train wrecks. Bad analogy.

I was talking to Bekky Robbins earlier, and she told me that Dave Grandy (my roommate from college, in case you forgot. Looks like a hippie) was coming over to their place to watch the game.
She also mentioned that their dog Oakleigh doesn't like people at all - except for Dave. I suggested that he was the "Dog Whisperer," which Bekky thought was hilarious, and her husband Paul didn't get. I guess you had to be there.

The Superbowl itself was pretty entertaining. As a Vol, I had to root for Peyton Manning (according to the coverage, he pretty much single-handedly won the Superbowl). That kick-off return by the Bears was amazing. Its pretty much the only NFL game I ever watch, but its worth the 4 hours. On the other hand, the commercials were disappointing overall. There were some gems though: Paper-Rock-Scissors, Pimp-Slap, and the GM robot were my favorites. I also like the Blockbuster pets. Does anyone know who voices the hamster? I know the rabbit is James Woods, and the mouse was Bobcat Goldthwait.

Anyway, class in the morning so I'm calling it a night.

Ezekiel 25:17

Well, its been an eventful few days, I suppose.

On Wednesday night, we started getting a little snow. By Thursday morning, we had about two or three inches. I got up at 6:30 to check the news for closings, and Brent had apparently hidden the remote. After spending two minutes fumbling in the dark with the cable box, I found News Channel 5 just in time for the closings cycle to start over (that means colleges last). It turned out that UTSI was the only school on any level that was open within about a 100-mile radius. That's pretty bogus if you ask me.

So, after digging my car out of the snow, I made it to school early (there wasn't anything wrong with the road ice-wise, but that possum on Wattendorf Highway deserves an Oscar). Dr. Dekken assigned another slew of homework assignments, which doesn't make me happy at all.

Things are going pretty well in the Missiles class now that Dr. Flandro has started participating. He's very helpful, and his anecdotes are just awesome. I could listen to him talk about pretty much anything.

Dr. Vakili missed yet another class this week, sending his post-doc Abraham MEGAnathan. Honest Abe didn't do too bad, but it did take him a while to get going. He starting deriving the Navier-Stokes equations (evil fluids equations based on both the Conservation of Momentum and Voodoo) but he didn't finish. That's-a-no-good. Hopefully Dr. Vakili will be back on Monday to set things straight.

On Friday, we got a little bit more snow, but nothing to worry about. I spent my day in the Spin Lab characterizing the new fibers. So far the data looks promising (when we get good data). However, sometimes the people above me don't do a good job communicating what I should be watching for. Sometimes is the diameter, sometimes its the modulus of elasticity, and sometimes its the tensile strength. If I don't guess right when I'm asked about a given property, I seem a little dense. That's right annoying.

By the way, try the chili at the UTSI dining hall. It's excellent!

Jeff and I watched Hart's War and The Great Raid last night. For whatever reason, we've been on a World War II kick. Hart's War is good if you're in the mood for a though-provoking movie about racial tension, queer (and I don't mean odd) nazis, and very little stuff blowing up. The Great Raid is good if you're in the mood for a solid heroic story, plenty of explosions / bazookas / gunfire, and a forced love story that doesn't take up too much screen time.

Aside from watching my Saturday morning cartoons (Superman, Batman) I spent most of the day working on my ballistics program in Matlab. Fortunately, if you've done much programming in one language you can move to another one without too much trouble. The last one I used extensively was FORTRAN, which isn't too distantly removed from Matlab. So, right now, I can accurately predict where a projectile (bullet, artillery shell, cow from a French castle) will land. Once I figure out the subroutines for rocket-powered thrust, changing mass, and drag brakes, I'll be set to predict the path of my missile. How cool is that?

Tonight, Jeff and I watched Pulp Fiction. Its one of those cult classics that movie fans just have to see at sometime in their life. It was pretty good, but I don't recommend it for everyone. Quentin Tarantino movies aren't for the weak at heart, or the stomach. Kinda like spicy Mexican food. If you can handle it, it's great. If not, get the chicken finger basket.

Looking back, things weren't really all that eventful. Oh well.

Italic Squirrel

Yesterday was a pretty usual Tuesday. No classes, lunch at school, and plenty of homework. I did get the install discs from Amy, so now I have "The Matlab" on my computer. ("The Matlab" is how Dr. Shiue always referred to it, and I can't say it any other way now) I don't know how to use it yet, but I've got it. I'll definitely be using it for my Missiles class, and probably using it for my thesis. And its good for me to know, as an engineer. Good times.

Today was even better, what with all the fiber characterization. The fibers are smaller, and just as strong - a good sign. However, they're not very cooperative. And the characterization machine has a bad attitude. All this means more work on Friday. Wonderful.

Brent is back again. I keep telling Jeff that we can't keep leaving food out.

If Dr. Dekken assigns another pile of homework tomorrow morning, I can't be held responsible for my actions. I don't know why that works, but it does so long as you say it.

In other news an old buddy from my scout troop, Kevin Lipe, is putting together a web design business called Italic Squirrel, Inc.. That was the name that we used when we put together the super-cool website for the troop way back when. In return for use of the name, I got an Italic Squirrel email address. It was a fair trade.

Finally, pray for snow.

Darn You, Old Man!

It was a long weekend, but a good weekend. I got in Thursday night, and stayed through Sunday afternoon. I got to spend a lot of time with Jennifer, and got to see the family too. Jennifer and I saw Catch and Release, which was a pretty good movie, for a chick flick. We spent pretty much all afternoon at the Memphis Law Library, doing homework. I always feel so out of place, solving 2nd order partial differential equations and doing cross products when everyone else is doing case briefs and other law student-type things.

Anyway, it was a good weekend, but it left me tired all day today. It was hard to notice during Mechanical Design (I'm usually on autopilot in there anyway). It didn't really hit me until I went by Dr. Vakili's office to pick up some research. As I was knocking, it hit me how beat I was feeling, and I realized that I was dead meat if he wanted to ask me any kind of serious engineering questions. Luckily, conversation remained superficial. He gave me a research paper to review - Dynamics of Fiber Unwinding. Which is great, because my thesis is on Fiber Winding. *begin sarcasm* I figure I can change some plus signs to minuses, slap together some pretty graphs, and call it a thesis. I can get that to him next week. *end sarcasm*

At the end class last week, Dr. Flandro gave us a problem to figure out, if we got the correct solution, he said we'd get an automatic A. The question was this:

If a ball bearing is dropped from 1000 m above the earth's surface at a lattitude of 37 degrees (the approximate lattitude of Tullahoma), in what direction would an observer standing directly below the ball bearing have to move in order to avoid being struck in the head by the ball bearing? Earth's rotation must be accounted for, other assumptions must be justified.

I know you all figured it out in a minute or two, but for the record, the ball bearing will strike about 55 cm due East from the observer. So, if this happens to you, don't move. You'll be ok.

Anyway, Jeff and I were the only ones (2 out of 4 attending, 1 person MIA) in the class to have any answer, let alone a correct one. So what about that garunteed A? Well, what he meant was that if we got that right, we'll should have no problem getting an A. Not cool, man. Not cool.

Dr. Vakili couldn't make it to Viscous Flow, so he had the video people post a lecture from "years ago." Its old enough that he's balding, but the hair is black instead of gray. From what I can tell, this was not a good lecture to miss. Oh well.

I wound up blowing off the homework group for Mechanical Design that was supposed to meet at 4:00. I was exhausted by 1:oo, and needed a nap in order to keep functioning. So, that's what I did. It was so very nice. I miss naps.

There was some dinner this evening, as well as Star Trek and Heroes. Its very cold outside, and we should get a "wintry mix" soon. Yay.

Note: The student recently referred to as "Motown" will be redubbed "Applejacks," as it is more poignant and does not repeat a nickname currently employed by Jeff and I.

Wild Eyed Southern Boys

Well, I didn't get a whole lot done today, just one more problem. I fooled with it off and on most of the day. I'm not really sure what was giving me problems. I'd lost the momentum from the past two days, I'm sure. I also kept stopping to do laundry and such, which just kept me from focusing. And the problem was a little ambiguous. I finally had to call in Jeff for a consultation, and we got it licked. Like I said, not much progress. But it was a moral victory. I still think I'm doing pretty good on progress. I'll try and get some work done at the house on Friday.

In other news, we have a house guest tonight: Brent. He's up here to talk with his advisor and update his thesis comittee regarding his research. He's sleeping on the couch tonight. He's a brave soul. I hope I don't wake him up tomorrow when I eat my cereal and watch JAG (yeah, it comes on at 6:00 and 7:00 on weekday mornings).

As alluded in the first paragraph, I'm heading home for a weekend visit tomorrow after school. I'll be hitting the road after Viscous at around 2:15, so I should have my normal drive ahead of me. Hopefully the sun won't blind me on I-40. And hopefully I won't get stuck in the middle of nowhere in a random traffic boondoggle. Let's all keep our fingers crossed.

.38 Special knows how to rock.

Feast Or Famine

My fall semester of my senior year was very much feast or famine, with either loads of homework all assigned and due at the same time, or nothing at all. I went about 4 weeks without having to do anythinng.

And it looks like this semester is going to be the same way. I got SLAMMED yesterday. In Mechanical Design, Dr. Dekken threw us 19 problems, 3 of which he's working in class. He claims that he doesn't generally collect homework, but I'm not brave enough to call his bluff. On top of that, Dr. Vakili gave us 4 problems for Viscous Flow. When I walked out to my car after class, I was walking a little funny.

As it stands now, I've got about half of the Mechanical Design problems worked. I'm hoping to tackle the rest of them tomorrow and come into class on Thursday with a list of questions. On the whole, I'm doing pretty good, but still need some direction on a few of them. Viscous problems will have to wait for the weekend.

I went up to school today to work on some fiber characterization, but Charlie the computer guy stole the computer that runs the characterization machine. This is the best kind of way to avoid work - waiting on someone else to do something. Nothing I can do about it now.

In other Carbon Fiber news, Heather and I may be getting a lackey to do our bidding soon. Dr. Vakili mentioned that another student may be doing some work for him, and we'd have to "tell him how to do it." Muwahahahahaha.

Finally, I put myself on the waiting list for the dorms for the Fall semester, just to keep my bases covered. Jeff should be graduated by then, leaving me potentially roommie-less. That's not good financially. Matt Morgan is a possible replacement, but I'm not banking on it right now.

There's No Problem That Can't Be Solved

Without the proper application of explosives.

It's been a pretty good weekend thus far. And its nice that my weekends start on Thursdays now. Fridays will henceforth be known as "Saturday, Part 1." Sweet. It's like working for the government.

The days have mostly run together this weekend, I've been doing research on the SDB (Small Diameter Bomb) as well as ground-to-ground & ground-to-air missiles currently used by the U.S. So far, there's nothing in my research that tells me I can steal a current design (translation: the research is useless). Oh well. I guess designing one will be fun.

Also, I'm supposed to "sarcasm" the project requirements out of Gloyer tomorrow. We'll see how that goes. Sarcasm is highly effective, but only when the victim recognizes it for what it is; kinda like when cartoon characters unwittingly walk off a cliff - they only fall when they realize that they can. I'm not saying Gloyer is dense; I'm just saying his sense of humor is weird. Time will tell.

In other news, I saw Sin City last night. It was pretty good, but I don't know that I would have liked it in the theater. I don't know why, but that's just my gut reaction. Its a little wierd and has a different format, and its kinda dark. I probably just don't like paying good money for that. Yeah, that's the ticket.

My major triumph for the weekend was getting my music collection in order, and synchronizing it with my Sansa (mp3 player). I'd already put my AC/DC and Johnny Cash on it, but now its got the whole shebang and room to spare. I need to find one of those radio broadcasters so I can use it in the car.

Finally, I mentioned that I finished my books a few days back. I have to strongly recommend The Rising Tide by Jeff Shaara. It was very well written, as I've come to expect from him, and does an excellent job of telling a story that hasn't been told very much. This book focuses on the North African campaign in 1942, and the invasion of Italy. We get to see it through the eyes of Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, Irwin Rommel, along with a U.S. tank gunner and a U.S. paratrooper. Very good read. Very.

P.S. Apparently, the Indianapolis Colts are going to the Super Bowl. Peyton Manning plays for them, so I'm supposed to care. Go Colts.

So, How 'Bout Them UAVs?

My 8:00 class is now my 7:45 class. That's not good, but its really not much more awful than 8:00. It really just means that Dr. Dekken's overages will be even more offensive. I should charge him like the cell phone companies do. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Tactical Missiles is a pretty interesting class, and the first project is going to be really cool, once Gloyer tells us what to do. I say that half-joking; its really starting to bother me that he hasn't given us official project requirements. I guess I'll have to beat that out of him on Monday.

Today was our first meeting for Viscous Flow; it seems that Dr. Vakili had better things to do last week. Oh well; we made a fairly smooth transition from Inviscid. There's a solid core of students from AE 511, with a few new faces, like Hot Rod and Motown.* I had to fight to get my seat from last semester (not really, but there was a pretty tense stare-down). The Superfriends are only at half-strength in there, but we do have Rich the Canadian Spy & Meester Vanhorn to fill the void. Its not the same though.

The seminar today was pretty cool. The topic was the Air Force's Research Lab's goals, objectives, and how cool UAV (un-manned air vehicles) are. The presenter (a colonel in charge of the AFRL/VA ("VA" means "Air Vehicles," yeah, I know) was very well spoken. However, I suspect that he may too be a Canadian spy due to his use of the word "windscreen" in place of "windshield." Suspicious indeed.

Jeff and I attempted some home-dryer repair today, and I sucessfully removed the thermal resistor doohickey. Dad coached me through it, and hopefully we'll just have to replace that and be done with it. Otherwise, its either the laundromat or drying stuff in the bathroom again.

* This is not a final nickname; we will try and find out the real name and base the nickname off of this. But, it's Motown for now.

Avast, Me Mateys!

'Tis a pirate's life for me.

Well, today was not all that it could have been. Wednesday is supposed to be one of my weekdays that I devote to lab work this semester; however, the fates seem to have conspired against me. First, when Heather and I come in, we find a team of electricians that are re-wiring the lab. That means no power for the computer or the Diastron (characterization thingy). That lasted about 20 minutes. After loading a tray, the Diastron developed a bad attitude and slowed me down; it was well past 12:30 before I could sneak away to lunch. Also, the lab computer and Heather's computer both have the same computer virus, so the tech guys are playing with those.

I wound up calling it quits a little after lunch, came home, ran to the store, and did some reading for my classes tomorrow. I fiddled with the database for a little bit, and watched the Mythbusters Pirate Special. Pretty neat stuff. Tacos for dinner.

Regarding Jeff's rant from last night, I have a pontification of my own. It was stated last night on Boston Legal that the diagnosis of the Peanut Allergy of Sudden Death has doubled in the past few years. HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN? Has this allergy been around the whole time, and there were just a lot of DFO's (Done Fell Out) in public schools until someone recently made the connection? Are aliens from the planet Peanutron 6 softening us up for an invasion? Or is this George Washington Carver's sick pyschotic legacy? What's the deal?

Anyway, I'm off to bed.

Yarrrgh.

Back In The Saddle

Yup, I'm still alive. I'm sorry that it's been almost a month since my last update. I don't offer any excuses, but I do point out that for a good chunk of that time I was traveling or without a computer. Mostly, though, I was lazy.

Anyway, the spring semester has gotten underway, and things aren't too bad. I only have class on Monday & Thursday, and I'm planning to make Tuesday & Wednesdays primarly research days. Should be fun. Classes so far:

ME 552 - Mechanical Design: this looks and sounds like the course that Dr. Shiue always wanted to teach. It's going to be Machine Design, with a few more specifics. Dr. Dekken (read Deacon) seems pretty on the ball, but claims that he is notorious for forgetting to come to class. That's fine with me if I can make the same claim.

ME 599 - Tactial Missile Design: Paul Gloyer is the day-to-day instructor, and he seems pretty competent (he owns a missile design company). We'll be designing a few types of missiles, and the class is more discussion based rather than lecture based. The projects should be really neat, but I'm already beginning to suspect that he's just farming out work from his company. Time will tell.

AE 512 - Viscous Flow: Dr. Vakili's spring class. It shouldn't be too bad; it's a follow-up to Inviscid Flow. Aside from the similarity to the word "vicious," I'm not too worried. Except for the final. Ooof. We haven't actually had class yet, but, whatever.

I spent the long weekend in Memphis, as I am wont to do. Ate plenty of good local food, went to a River Kings game (free tickets; the Kings won). I also saw Pursuit of Happyness, which was very good and they did make a point to explain the spelling error. It was great spending time with Jennifer, and seeing my family.

I've finished reading all the books I got over Christmas. I'm impressed with myself. Didn't think I had it in me anymore. Anyway, it's late and I'm tired.